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Do I have to go to Church today?

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Holy Day of Obligation?! That’s like saying someone forced you to eat ice-cream and sprinkles!

There appears to be some confusion over the status of the Feast of the Assumption so I thought I’d do a really quick post and clear things up. If you’re a Roman Rite Catholic in the United States then, yes, today is a Holy Day of Obligation.

Where has all the confusion come from? Well, the U.S. Bishops received permission from the Vatican to abrogate certain Holy Days if the feast in question is on either a Saturday or Monday. The Feast of the Assumption falls into this category, leading to the rather bizarre situation whereby it was not a Holy Day of Obligation in 2009 and 2011, but it was during the intervening years. However, since today is a Thursday (and not either a Saturday or Monday), it’s time to start looking for a lunchtime or evening Mass… 🙂

Screen Shot 2013-08-15 at 7.54.01 AM

“If you’re complaining that you HAVE TO go to church today
for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother,
then you need to get your priorities in check, SON!” – Joe Q

Romantic Movies

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The other day on Facebook, a friend of mine who is a Christian speaker asked for recommendations for romantic movies, but only ones which didn’t have lots of inappropriate material. Now, I understand that the term “inappropriate material” means different things to different people, but I was quite amazed at some of the recommendations he received. Anyway, I decided to start compiling my own list of movies and I would love your help!

  1. Pride & Prejudice
  2. Sense & Sensibility
  3. Persuasion
  4. Emma
  5. Hitch
  6. Ever After
  7. Kate & Leopold
  8. You’ve got mail
  9. Sleepless in Seattle
  10. The Princess Bride
  11. Martha, mett Frank, Daniel and Laurence
  12. 50 First Dates
  13. Music & Lyrics
  14. IQ
  15. The Family Man
  16. Return to me

What did I miss? Do you have any other recommendations?

Guest Post: 7 Things I learned as a Neophyte

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A friend of my posted the following text on her Facebook wall today. I thought it was so good I asked her if I could publish it here on the blog. One year since what she calls “the best day of my life”, here is her reflection on the seven things she learned as a Neophyte…

Neophite Group

To put it in simple terms, a Neophyte is a new convert to a religion. New Advent describes Neophyte as originating from the word neophytoi meaning the newly planted and incorporated with the mystic Body of Christ. I converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism last Easter, and have decided to do a bit of reflection on my last year. It has been filled with revelation after revelation but here are the top seven that have had the most impact on me.

1. Hungering for the Eucharist

To put it simply, hungering for the Eucharist is a real thing. To some that may sound crazy or impossible and to others, you may know exactly what I mean. For those reading this who aren’t Catholic, the Eucharist is what we call the transformation of the communion bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Early Church Father, St. Justin Martyr, writes in A.D. 151:

“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and has both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food that has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” [First Apology 66]

For further reference, read John 6 and watch “The Hour That Will Change Your Life.”

After partaking in my First Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil and the weeks following, I was somewhat stunned to find that I hungered for more of the Eucharist. I yearned for His Body and Blood, the peace that it brought, my human weaknesses obliterated by His strength, His divine life inside of me. This surreal and transcendent feeling is one I could never fully describe but pray all will come to experience.

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Catholic Dating: Should I date a non-Catholic? (Part 1)

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It has been quite some time since I wrote my series on Catholic dating. Those articles were certainly among the more popular here at Restless Pilgrim. The subject matter of those posts generated considerable discussion in my local Catholic community of San Diego, which pleased me no end since this was my main goal in writing them in the first place. The fact that it was also an extremely cathartic writing experience was just an added bonus! 😉

During the intervening three years since writing that series, my own love life has been, to put it mildly, anything but dull. Despite this, I’ve never felt inclined to write further on the subject of dating. That is, until now…

noncatholic

Over the past few months one particular question concerning dating has come up again and again, particularly as my thoughtful friends attempt to marry me off and enlist me in the ranks of the blissfully domesticated. The question has been “Hey David, what do you think about dating a non-Catholic?”

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Quick Apology: Biology 101

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During my Advent hiatus from blogging, a friend of mine posted the following image on Facebook:

NotAChicken

I rightly assumed this graphic to be an argument in favour of abortion, essentially arguing that the unborn aren’t really human. How might you respond to a graphic such as this? Well, in today’s post I would like to share a modified version of the Facebook comment which I posted in response, so that if one of your friends also posts this image you’ll have an example of how you might construct your own reply. Or, of course, if you’re short on time, you could just paste a link to this article 🙂

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Sunday Lectionary: Are you listening to the words coming out of my mouth?

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Once again, in the spirit of regaining more of my free time to engage in other projects, these notes will be fairly terse and to the point…

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 19th, 2012

The Readings this week continue on a similar trajectory to those of recent weeks. In Proverbs we hear how Lady Wisdom has “dressed her meat [and] mixed her wine” and sent out an invitation to all to come eat and drink at her table. In our Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist invites us once again to “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”.  St. Paul continues his moral exhortation to the Ephesians in the Second Reading , commending them to be “filled with the Spirit” rather than wine. Finally, in our Gospel extract, the Lord again affirms that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven” and He promises that “whoever eats this bread will live forever”.

Benedict Eucharist

For the last few weeks the Readings have all been about food and drink. Are you hungry yet? Are you spiritually salivating? Are you hungry for holiness? Do you long for the flesh of Christ?

I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was of the seed of David; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life. – St. Ignatius to the Romans, Chapter 7

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